CBS Evening News has averaged fewer than 4 million nightly viewers for the sixth consecutive week, as the Tony Dokoupil-anchored program continues to trail rivals NBC and ABC.
According to Nielsen data obtained by the Daily Beast, CBS’s evening newscast garnered an average of 3.81 million viewers last week—excluding Friday, due to the show’s retitling. By contrast, NBC Nightly News saw 5.97 million viewers, while ABC World News Tonight came in first with 7.89 million.
The failure to reach the 4-million-viewer benchmark is a trend that dates back to late March and early April. CBS Evening News also saw its lowest-rated week since Dokoupil took over the anchor’s chair in January. That occurred the week beginning April 20, when approximately 3.7 million viewers tuned in.
The Daily Beast has reached out to a CBS News representative, who declined to comment.
A source familiar with the network said ratings for Dokoupil’s show are up this month compared with last May in both total viewership and in the 25-54 demographic. This person also pointed out that CBS Evening News achieved last week what NBC and ABC’s shows didn’t: an increase in total viewership and viewership in that key demographic over the week prior.
Dokoupil, 45, was named anchor by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, the opinion journalist who had no prior television experience before David Ellison selected her to lead the newsroom.
But Dokoupil reportedly irked his own colleagues even before his troublesome first broadcast by complaining about “legacy media” having often “missed the story.” Additionally, staffers took issue with Dokoupil’s brief, both-sides treatment of the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, as well as his flattery of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And that was just his second day.
Since then, staffing changes at CBS Evening News include a senior producer being fired and a handful of other employees taking buyouts.
Weiss, Puck reported Monday, may have her influence over the evening newscast and other CBS shows diminished, as executives at parent company Paramount realize she was given “too broad a mandate” given her qualifications, or lack thereof. Also a factor, according to the report, was the “ceaseless barrage of negative press.”
A CBS spokesperson pushed back, saying, “Bari has the full support of Paramount and David Ellison as the editorial leader overseeing CBS News and 60 Minutes. Reports suggesting otherwise are inaccurate.”
